Privacy Policyगोपनीयता नीति

1. Who we are

NEEI ("NEEI", "the Platform", "we", "us", "our") is operated by NEEI Digital Pvt Ltd, a company incorporated under the laws of India. Registered office: Flat 1/2/3, DLF Building, Opp. Savitri Cinema Complex, Greater Kailash 2, New Delhi 110048. Contact: info@neei.in · +91 99992 14477.

NEEI is an enablement platform for rural Self-Help Groups (SHGs), Village Organisations (VOs), individual rural entrepreneurs and small rural enterprises ("Sellers"). It helps them plan a business, prepare a product, list it for sale, and find demand from government tenders, brands and other buyers.

This Privacy Policy applies to the NEEI website, the NEEI Android application, and related services (together, "the Services"). It explains what personal data we collect, why, how we use and share it, how long we keep it, and the rights you have.

2. Our role under Indian data protection law

We process personal data under the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 ("DPDP Act") and other applicable Indian law.

• For data you give us to use the Services, NEEI is the Data Fiduciary — the entity that decides why and how your data is processed.
• You are the Data Principal.
• Where we handle data on behalf of another organisation (for example, a Village Organisation's records about its member groups), we act as a Data Processor for that organisation.

We process personal data only for the purposes described here, with your consent or on another lawful ground, and only to the extent needed for those purposes.

3. What personal data we collect

What we collect depends on how you use the Services.

a. Account and registration data

Name (of the group, organisation or person), mobile number, email address, preferred language, your account type (SHG, Village Organisation or individual), and for groups: the NRLM/SHG code, the VO or CLF name, member count and year formed; for a VO: its registration number. We verify your mobile number with a one-time password (OTP) sent by SMS.

b. Identity and business documents

PAN and Aadhaar number are optional at registration. Where you choose to provide them, or where they are required later to register you on a procurement portal, a marketplace or with a financing partner, we collect them for that purpose only (see Section 4). We may also collect GST registration, bank account details for settlement, enterprise registration documents and sector-specific licences when you onboard to transact.

c. Location details

The state, district, block and village or address you enter. We use these to research your area and match local demand. We do not collect device GPS location.

d. Your business answers and generated plans

The answers you give in the business questionnaire (skills, assets, time, money, problems, product ideas, packaging), the business options you choose, and the business plans, action plans and supply plans generated for you, including their images.

e. Product listings and photos

Product names, descriptions, prices, units, stock status and the photos you upload from your camera or gallery.

f. Demand and supply activity

Which tenders and brand requirements you view or respond to, and the supply plans you start.

g. Help requests and communications

Requests for help you raise on your action plan, support requests, feedback and correspondence with us.

h. Device and usage data

Device type, operating system, app version, IP address, and log data such as access times and screens viewed. We use this to operate, secure and improve the Services.

We do not ask for more data than the purpose needs.

4. Aadhaar and sensitive data

Where we collect an Aadhaar number, we do so only where it is needed for a specific purpose — Seller onboarding, portal registration or a financing application — and only with your explicit consent, in accordance with the Aadhaar Act and the DPDP Act.

• We use Aadhaar only for the identity-verification or registration purpose for which it was collected, and for nothing you have not been told about.
• Aadhaar numbers are encrypted at rest and are never shown in full in the Services or sent to any AI provider.
• You may ask how your Aadhaar data has been used and request its deletion where retention is no longer required by law (Section 11).

5. Why we use your data

We use personal data to:

• create and manage your account and verify your identity by OTP;
• research business options for your area and generate your business plan, action plan and supply plans;
• onboard Sellers to procurement portals and marketplace channels, including the NEEI-operated online store;
• match your supply to relevant tenders, buyers and brand demand;
• let facilitators review your listings and respond to your help requests;
• process, fulfil and track orders and settlements where those services are offered;
• send service notifications, such as the message that your plan is ready;
• comply with legal, tax, audit and regulatory obligations;
• detect, prevent and address fraud, abuse and security issues; and
• analyse and improve the Services, using aggregated or de-identified data wherever possible.

We rely on your consent where the law requires it, and on other lawful grounds (such as a legal obligation or the legitimate uses permitted by the DPDP Act) where applicable.

6. AI-assisted services

Your business plan, business options, action plan, supply plans and the images in them are produced with the help of third-party artificial-intelligence providers. To do this we send them the answers you give in the questionnaire, your product and location details (state, district, village), your group's name and type, and the plan text being written. We do not send Aadhaar, PAN, bank details, your mobile number or email address to AI providers.

These providers process the data on our instructions to return the generated content and, under their terms, do not use it to train their models. AI-generated content is guidance prepared for you; it can be wrong or out of date, and it is not professional, legal or financial advice. A NEEI facilitator can help you check it before you act on it.

7. Government and programme data

NEEI works alongside rural-livelihoods programmes such as the National Rural Livelihoods Mission (NRLM) and State Rural Livelihoods Missions. Where you are enrolled through such a programme, we may verify or receive your registration details from the programme's systems, so you do not have to re-enter them — only where the programme and you have authorised it, and only to enable your participation on NEEI. We do not sell programme data, and we share it back only as needed to operate the Services you use.

8. Tender and procurement data

The tenders and procurement opportunities shown on NEEI are gathered from government portals, cooperative bodies and third-party tender-data providers. That is business information, not your personal data. We redistribute it on the basis of the source's terms and the rights we hold from our data providers, and we ask you to verify any opportunity on the official portal before acting on it.

9. How we share your data

We do not rent or sell your personal data. We share it only as follows.

a. To deliver the Services

With the providers who run parts of the Services on our behalf, under contractual confidentiality and security obligations: cloud hosting in India, the SMS gateway that delivers your OTP, the email service that sends your notifications, the AI providers described in Section 6, the tender-data provider, and the online-store platform on which approved product listings are published.

b. With facilitators, buyers and your Village Organisation

NEEI facilitators see your plans, listings and help requests in order to review and support them. Approved product listings — the product's name, description, price, photos and your group's name as the maker — are published so that buyers can see and purchase them. If your group is part of a Village Organisation on NEEI, that organisation can see your assigned business and journey stage.

c. For credit and financing — only with your explicit consent

If you opt into financing or credit-enablement services, we share information as set out in the Lender Onboarding and Credit Consent section of the Terms & Conditions, and only with your specific authorisation for that purpose.

d. Legal and regulatory

Where required by law, a court order or a lawful government request, or where disclosure is reasonably necessary to protect the rights, safety or property of NEEI, our users or the public.

e. Business transfers

If NEEI or substantially all of its assets are acquired, merged or reorganised, personal data may be transferred as part of that transaction, subject to the acquirer honouring this Policy.

10. Storage, security and retention

Data is stored on servers located in India with reputable cloud providers. We use encryption in transit (HTTPS) and at rest for sensitive identifiers, hashed one-time passwords, signed sessions, role-based access for staff, and audit logs of staff actions. No method of transmission or storage is completely secure; we apply reasonable and appropriate safeguards but cannot guarantee absolute security.

We keep personal data only as long as it is needed for the purposes in this Policy or as required by tax, audit and legal obligations, and then delete or de-identify it. If a personal-data breach is likely to affect you, we will notify you and the Data Protection Board of India as the DPDP Act requires.

11. Your rights and how to delete your account

Under the DPDP Act you may:

• access a summary of the personal data we hold about you and how we process it;
• correct inaccurate or incomplete data — most of it you can edit yourself in the Services;
• erase your data where it is no longer needed and retention is not required by law;
• withdraw consent at any time where processing is based on consent (this does not affect processing already carried out);
• nominate another person to exercise your rights in the event of death or incapacity; and
• seek grievance redressal through our Grievance Officer (Section 14).

Deleting your account. You can ask for your account to be deleted at any time: in the app, open Account → Delete my account, or write to our Grievance Officer (Section 14) from your registered mobile number or email. We confirm the request with an OTP to your registered mobile and delete the account within 7 days. Deletion permanently removes your account, your answers and generated plans, your uploaded photos and generated images, your product listings, your help requests and supply plans, and your records in any Village Organisation on NEEI. Listings already published on the online store are withdrawn. Copies in backups are removed within 30 days. Records we must keep by law (for example, tax records of completed transactions) are retained for the legally required period and then deleted.

For any other request, contact us using the details in Section 14. We respond within the timelines the law requires.

12. Cookies and app permissions

Website. We use a session cookie to keep you signed in and a preference for your language. We do not use advertising or remarketing cookies and do not use your data for behavioural advertising. You can clear cookies in your browser; signing in will then require a new OTP.

Android app. The app asks for camera and photo access only when you add a product photo, and for notifications if you choose to receive them. It does not request location, microphone, contacts or SMS-reading permissions. The OTP is typed by you.

13. Children

The Services are intended for users aged 18 and above. We do not knowingly collect personal data from children. If you believe a child's data has been collected, contact our Grievance Officer and we will delete it.

14. Grievance Officer and contact

In accordance with the DPDP Act and the Information Technology Act, 2000, our Grievance Officer handles complaints and requests relating to your personal data.

Grievance Officer: Susmita
NEEI Digital Pvt Ltd, Flat 1/2/3, DLF Building, Opp. Savitri Cinema Complex, Greater Kailash 2, New Delhi 110048
Email: grievance@neei.in · Phone: +91 99992 14417

We acknowledge grievances promptly and resolve them within the period prescribed by law.

15. Changes to this Policy

We may update this Policy from time to time. We will post the updated version with a revised "Last updated" date and, where changes are significant, take reasonable steps to notify you in the Services. Continued use after an update means you accept the revised Policy.